Resolutions adopted during the 2013 session by the St. Louis City
Board of Aldermen have been converted to electronic format by the staff of the St. Louis
Public Library. This electronic version has been done for the interest and convenience of
the user. These are unofficial versions and should be used as unofficial copies.

Official
printed copies of St. Louis City Ordinances may be obtained from the Register's Office at
the St. Louis City Hall.

WHEREAS, on October 26, 2013, an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
outlined serious concerns related to the wrongful arrests of up to one hundred
St. Louis citizens due to "clerical mistakes, and sloppy" attention
to fingerprint reports; and

WHEREAS, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article and lawsuits filed
by alleged victims, these fingerprint reports provided information that the
citizen arrested was the wrong person; and

WHEREAS, in response to The Post-Dispatch's claims of identifying 100 people
arrested in error over the past seven years, who have collectively spent more
than 2,000 days in jail, Eddie Roth, a senior aide to Mayor Francis Slay, is
quoted in the article saying, "I worry about a lot of things. I don't
worry about this." ; and

WHEREAS, officials have stated it is the fault of the individuals wrongfully
arrested because, if their name had not been in a criminal justice database,
the mistake could not have been made.

WHEREAS, it is the responsibility of the City of St. Louis and its law
enforcement officials to preserve the civil liberties of all citizens,
regardless of past infractions; and

WHEREAS, there are numerous concerns raised by these wrongful arrests, as
reported. These concerns include: failure to verify the identity of the people
arrested; potentially ignoring protests of citizens wrongfully arrested;
failure to differentiate between the people who gave false names and the
people whose names were being falsely used as aliases; downplaying cases where
systematic failure caused wrongful arrests of St. Louis citizens; and failure
to correct errors in records which caused repeated wrongful arrests, leaving
authorities unsure of who they were holding or who committed which past
crimes; and

WHEREAS, city officials have questioned the accuracy of the newspaper's
overall information; and

WHEREAS, wrongful arrests have negative consequences on the lives of the
citizens wrongfully arrested and erodes the faith of citizens in our judicial
system; and

WHEREAS, it is the duty of St. Louis Board of Aldermen to work to assure that
all of our constituents have confidence that their liberties and safety are
justly protected.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Alderman for the City of St.
Louis that we direct the Public Safety Committee to convene hearings for the
purpose of examining and investigating the events, conditions, circumstances
and failures that lead to the wrongful arrests of citizens of the City of St.
Louis.